Observations on a 4-1 loss in Carolina: Fate can hand Stars some tricky situations, but they still get to call shots

RALEIGH, N.C. _ The premise of Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1998 movie Sliding Doors is that one moment can change your entire life. Miss a train ride, and your being can go in two very distinct directions.

It’s a plot line we all have considered. Meet this person, and everything changes. Miss this meeting, wake up late, pass by the bar…it could make every aspect going forward completely different. It changes your timeline or creates an alternate universe.

It’s an intriguing concept, and one that works extremely well in the NHL. Organizations take biennial treks to the coaching supermarket, think nothing of shipping out a general manager after three or four years, and can often make over a roster in just a couple of trade deadlines.

Take the Stars for example.

This team has gone from Dave Tippett to Marc Crawford to Glen Gulutzan to Lindy Ruff behind the bench. It has gone from Doug Armstrong to Les Jackson/Brett Hull to Joe Nieuwendyk to Jim Nill in the GM chair. It has four players that were on the roster three seasons ago _ Jamie Benn, Kari Lehtonen, Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski. It has been through a personnel whirlwind that has to be considered terribly breezy even in this industry.

So there were a lot of opportunities for the doors to slide in a different direction. Jim Nill likes to tell the story of Boston’s playoff run last season. Had the Bruins lost to Toronto in the first round in Game 7, they would have not had to give goalie Tuukka Rask such a big raise. If they don’t have to commit money to Rask, maybe they decide not to trade Tyler Seguin. If they decide not to trade Tyler Seguin, then the future of the Stars heads in a completely different direction.

Think about it, Boston rallied from a 4-1 third period deficit in Game 7 to win the first series, and that leads to Tyler Seguin being the leading scorer on the Stars this season. It’s mind-boggling at times.

As near as we can tell, Alain Vigneault had every opportunity to take the Stars’ coaching job in the summer. He was the first interviewed and probably the first guy offered the job. He decided to go interview with the Rangers instead, and the Stars grabbed Ruff. That might be the best thing that has happened in the last year, because Ruff seems a great fit with Nill and with the new group of players. But what if Vigneault came here and Ruff landed in Vancouver or New York? What if he got no offer and instead became coach of the Jets mid-season?

The options are boundless when you start allowing your imagination to run free.

Kirk Muller was on the bench for the Hurricanes Thursday night. He was in the mix when Glen Gulutzan got the Stars head coaching gig in the summer of 2011. Muller was an assistant coach with Montreal and was a hot commodity, as well as good friends with Nieuwendyk. However, Muller didn’t want to jump into the NHL because he felt he wasn’t ready, so he decided to pursue an AHL job.

He was hired by the Milwaukee Admirals, coached there for two months and then took the Carolina head coaching job in November of 2011. Two months, and that changed his mind about the NHL.

What if he would have instead become the Stars head coach? Would he have had different results in Dallas? Would the Stars have made the playoffs? Would Joe Nieuwendyk still be GM? Would the Stars have Tyler Seguin as their leading scorer? It’s a barstool debate that could confuse Werner Heisenberg.

In Paltrow’s movie, she discovers that her “lives’’ can end both miserably and good. In either scenario, there is no black and white, only shades of grey.

And that’s maybe the key to this little visit to the Twilight Zone. Fate is a finicky master. She is like a cat walking through a china store. The steps seem all perfect and delicate, and then one swish of her tail and you’re cleaning up a serious mess and pondering “why me.’’ But just as a cat can be set outside or closed out of a room by its owner, we mere mortals do possess the ability to control fate at times.

If we prepare properly, if we react differently, if we impose our ideas, then the doors also can slide in different ways. Free will, we call it _ and most who believe in fate believe in that concept, as well.

So when one decision starts a coaching chain reaction, when a banks’ dragging feet drags a franchise’s progress, when a Game 7 win creates a new budget, there are still very human reactions that have to take place.

Just like when a puck hits a guy in the cease, flips up in the air and somehow lands behind a 6-4 goalie who seems to be in perfect position, defying all laws of physics.

Fate deals the hand, but you still get to play it. You get to kill the penalty. You get to challenge the goalie on the other end of the ice.

And that might be the best lesson learned on Thursday. Kirk Muller could have changed the path of the Stars organization. Same with Ken Hitchcock (he wanted the job) or Alain Vigneault. But there’s a very good chance Lindy Ruff is the right man to cook the meal, that Jim Nill is the right man to buy the groceries, and the Stars are the right players to react to the sliding doors.

It won’t be simple, but it’s certainly not all that difficult, either. They just have to know how to read the situation.

Thursday’s loss makes winning the final playoff spot in the West a little more difficult. Still, the Stars are tied with Phoenix, have a huge lead in the first tiebreaker (34-30 in ROW) and have one game in hand. They certainly control their own fate…because no matter how many doors slide in an NHL season, you usually do.

Top Picks

Comments

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.